Al Ain Zoo

On one of our free days in Dubai before the cricket test match started we went searching for animals.

Previously we saw the Ras Al Khor wildlife sanctuary when hitching a ride from the Sharjah cricket stadium with a friend who kindly stopped so we could the flamingos there.

It is outside the city so the skyline lurks in the distance, and it looks like it is in the middle of an uninhabitable wasteland.

There is a huge bird blind constructed far out in a barren flat where water collects in the rain (when??). Flamingos, egrets, herons, and plovers all call it home.

Everything I read about the area recommended the Al Ain zoo for seeing animals. It is a conservatory in addition to zoo, with a big emphasis on animal welfare. Dubai also has a zoo, which would have been closer, but the reviews on Tripadvisor all indicated it was a depressing place with sad animals.

The U.A.E. is definitely a driving country. Gasoline is plentiful and dirt cheap. In fact, it costs more to buy water than gas. At the moment, gas here works out to about $2 US per gallon, while the same amount of water would cost $4. There is no such thing as free tap water in restaurants--you drink it, you buy it.

But cars are everywhere, and despite a solid metro and bus system in Dubai, I couldn't find any public transport to Al Ain, about an hour away.

In the end, we rented a car for the day for 70 AED, which is about $23 US. I've never driven in another country before!! It was on the same side of the road as the US at least, but I definitely spent the first 20 minutes with a death grip on the wheel.

We drove off out of Dubai and into the barren desert around it on pristine expansive highways that look like they were made yesterday. In many places it was 8 and even 12 lanes across.

Once in Al Ain we had not one but seven round-a-bouts to face to get to the zoo. I'll take a nice relaxing stop-light any day.

The zoo itself was amazing! It was clearly designed very carefully and by someone with a lot of love for the animals and the visitor experience. The enclosures were big and diverse with good habitat, and the paths were fun and winding, with a lot of shade. In some areas you walked through fake rock caves.

One lion had fallen asleep right up against the glass.

What is this giant bird???

The giraffe enclosure was incredible.

They also had a fancy gift shop full of stuffed animals I would have killed for as a kid.

It also had some kind of crazy zoo train that drove by us at one point. No idea how you get on or where it takes you.

There are mosques everywhere here, and at prayer times the prayers echo out from them across the city. The zoo had its own mosque as well.

It was a fun day! I really enjoyed the zoo, and it is worth the trip if you ever find yourself in Dubai. If you ever do go, though, don't go before 4 pm! Even with all the shaded areas it is scorching. The animals feel it too, and a lot of them were just getting up from their midday comas when we got there.

 It's always nice to see something you can tell was created with love, and someone out there definitely loved this zoo.